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“The Meaning of the Blues,” by Christel Roelandt

 

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I Cried For You

Billie, beautiful, giving away her ache,
as though she had an endless supply,
her voice, scorched by needles & spoons,
turning over each longed-for need,
each song a bird following her south
to the hick towns, where they all came
to hear Lady do her pain thing, gently
shaping blues, mellow in her mouth,
& always one step behind the beat,
the spotlight wrapping her in its red coat,
stationing her in back of the mic—
boa-ed, bejeweled, lip-sticked & led
by Lester’s sax, Hodges & Wilson
pushing some smoky tune ahead of her.
Now it’s your turn to cry over me,
head tilted back, the white gardenia sings.

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Michael Steffen’s fifth collection of poems, In the Factory of Loathing, will be published by Fernwood Press in April, 2024.  New work has recently appeared, or will appear soon, in Bollman Bridge Review, The Chaffin Journal and Literary Cocktail Magazine. 

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Christel Roelandt  is a Belgian painter from Ghent in Flanders. Her work focuses on the human form; faces and nudes, and she finds inspiration by all things beautiful and often by books, music and films.

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Listen to the 1936 recording of Teddy Wilson’s Orchestra playing “I Cried For You,” with Billie Holiday (vocal); Wilson (piano); Johnny Hodges (saxophone); Harry Carney (saxophone); Jonah Jones (trumpet); and others…[Columbia]

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Click here  for information about how to submit your poetry

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